Untitled (SF-297; L. L274) 1987

This untitled work is one of many splashy, colorful paintings Sam Francis made, and he probably used acrylic on paper or canvas. Imagine the studio, the cans of paint, the brushes, the air thick with possibility. I love how the colors here—reds, blues, yellows, greens—don't mix so much as explode together. The paint looks thin, almost watery, like he’s playing with the surface tension of the liquid. Look at the drips and splatters, like these marks were left behind by some kind of joyful accident. I feel Francis, in the moment of making, letting go, trusting his intuition. It reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stain paintings, or even a little bit of Joan Mitchell’s energy, all these artists playing with chance and control. It's cool to think about artists in conversation like this, across time, each one picking up where another left off, pushing painting in new directions. Each painting is a unique, embodied expression, and can mean a lot of different things.